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Here's a recap of some of Thursday's developments

• The total of Covid-19 deaths in Scotland now stands at 126
• The figure is a big jump from yesterday, but 40 of those deaths occurred in recent days and have only just been included in the official figure.
• It was announced Labour peer Lord Gordon of Strathblane died on Tuesday, aged 83, reportedly with coronavirus.
• New guidelines on Personal Protective Equipment have been issued for different health and care settings.
• A new testing facility is to be operational by mid-April at the University of Glasgow's site on the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus, staffed by 500 volunteers.
• It was confirmed the COP26 climate change conference, due to be held in Glasgow, had been put back a year.
• Thousands of people took part in this week's Clap for Carers event. Bagpipers were asked to play Scotland the Brave to honour all those playing a key role in the fight against coronavirus.

We'll be back tomorrow with more live coverage of how the outbreak is affecting Scotland and what is being done to get us through the crisis. Until then, stay safe.

A coronavirus testing facility is to be opened at the University of Glasgow.

The testing centre is part of a bid to increase the testing capacity across the UK and will be located at the university's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus.

Testing will begin in mid-April and the facility will be staffed on a 24/7 basis by more than 500 volunteer molecular scientists, technicians and bioinformaticians.

Image source, University of Glasgow

Catherine Calderwood posted a picture of her family joining in the nationwide appreciation of key workers' efforts during the coronavirus crisis.

Edinburgh nurse Alison Williams set an up an appeal to help patients who had been admitted to hospital without having time to pack items like toiletries, reading glasses, phone chargers or tablet computers.

With people in isolation, it is hard to get such items delivered.

"They are very lonely, very isolated, and they've not got that personal contact with family members at home," she told the �鶹Լ��'s Reporting Scotland.

"That's why I thought it would be great if we could bring tablets into the wards so patients and families can be connected that way.

She launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £500 last Saturday and reached the target within an hour.

So far it has raised more than £16k to create "rainbow boxes" containing essential items for patients.

The Scottish government says 126 people with Covid-19 have now died in Scotland.

The figure is a big jump on Wednesday - but Nicola Sturgeon explained 40 of the deaths occurred over recent days.

She said details were only now being released because of a delay in notifying families about deaths via one laboratory.

This is what the increase in deaths looks like once the new deaths are listed on the correct days.

You can find more charts explaining the spread of coronavirus in Scotland here

"I will absolutely be clapping tonight", Nicola Sturgeon told Reporting Scotland.

She was referring to the "Clap for Carers" initiative at 20:00.

The first minister added that tonight the Scottish government building St Andrew's House, in Edinburgh, would be lit up blue in support every Thursday night of the pandemic.

"From the bottom of my heart, I am so thankful to every single person who works in our health and social care services all the time but particularly right now", she added.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said coronavirus testing was "not a panacea", as tests only worked on people who currently have symptoms.

Speaking to Reporting Scotland from St Andrews House in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon said Scotland's testing capacity had been extended "quite rapidly" from under 400 tests to almost 2,000 tests a day within weeks.

More testing is important but doesn't replace the need for social distancing and other precautions, the first minister added.

At a later stage in the outbreak, testing would be an important part of the strategy, particularly, she said, when an antibody test became available.

This test would tell people if they had already had the virus and therefore would have a level of immunity.

"While testing is important, we've got to be careful that we don't overplay what it can do", Ms Sturgeon added.

Right now, she said, experts were telling her that if you had symptoms of coronavirus there was as much chance that you had Covid-19 as you had something else

But in the next few weeks that will change, it will become much more likely that you have coronavirus as it spreads.

One of Scotland's biggest fruit farms is facing its biggest ever recruitment challenge due to coronavirus.

Stewarts of Tayside farms more than 4,000 acres, growing swede, strawberries raspberries and cereals.

But the Carse of Gowrie firm is now working out how to harvest its crops without hundreds of workers from eastern Europe who usually come for the season.

Owner Sheena Stewart said: “We are now taking on Brits but they don’t realise how physically demanding the work is and in all weather conditions, therefore, they often don’t return after one or two days.”

Fiona Walker
�鶹Լ�� Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

The sharp in rise in deaths announced by the first minister today exposes another gap in our knowledge of how this epidemic is advancing.

The rise in deaths by an additional 40 previously unknown or undeclared cases may be, as was explained, down to a single lab not officially recording the deaths as they happened.

We are expecting more information on how this number of deaths was missed. Although the chief medical officer told me she was not surprised by the increase, it does seem to mean we are further along the curve monitoring deaths than it previously appeared.

The Scottish government is now moving to a new definition of coronavirus deaths, relying on details from the National Records of Scotland so that anyone whose death certificate mentions Covid-19 will now be included in the daily totals.

Today’s figures also underline how much information we don’t know about the people behind the numbers of deaths in Scotland.

For example, we don’t have a breakdown of ages, gender, how many had underlying conditions, or how long they were in intensive care for. The government says that we are now entering a phase where the number of deaths means that patient confidentiality is no longer such an issue. We are expecting to get much more of this detail next week and a fuller picture of the impact of this pandemic in Scotland.